Adrian Landfill to close due to declining trash collections

Friday

Aug 23, 2013 at 11:26 AM

By Dennis PelhamDaily Telegram Staff Writer

The Adrian Landfill is closing to the public on Sept. 20, Republic Services Inc. announced Thursday.

The closure will not affect collection customers, whose waste will be trucked to other landfills, according to the company. Lenawee County government, however, will lose the revenue source that funds its recycling programs. The county collects more than $1 per ton of trash received at the landfill. The revenue totaled more than $140,000 last year and $81,925 through July this year.

“It’s a bad thing for Lenawee County,” said John Tuckerman, R-Blissfield, county commission chairman.

“I hate to see us lose our landfill,” Tuckerman said. “If we’re going to stay competitive we need to have recycling and other green options for waste disposal.”

The county commission voted last week to start the process of amending the county’s solid waste plan to look at a possible tax on waste exported from the county as well as other issues.

Shrinking waste volumes from Lenawee County sources and price competition from other landfills in the area appear to be the reason for Republic Services’ decision, he said.

Industrial plants Lenawee County has lost in recent years have cut into the volume of local business for the landfill, Tuckerman said. And the city of Adrian more than two years ago contracted with a competing waste hauler that does not use the Adrian Landfill.

Republic Services spokesman Russ Knocke said in an email that the Adrian Landfill will close to the public on Sept. 20.

“We will continue to serve collection customers as normal, and our drivers who are currently based at the Adrian facility will continue to be employed with the company,” Knocke stated. “Drivers will simply deliver waste to another nearby location, which is more efficient for local operations. We plan to retain ownership of the landfill after it is closed to the public.”

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is waiting for Republic Services to submit engineering plans for temporarily capping off the Adrian Landfill by an Oct. 1 target date, said Larry Bean, supervisor of the agency’s waste management division.

Company officials have indicated they intend to mothball the Adrian Landfill for now, he said. A decision on whether to permanently close the facility could be made next year, he said.

Lenawee County Administrator Martin Marshall said there will be a review of the effect on funding for the county’s solid waste department and the county’s recycling center that opened in November last year.

It is fortunate the county has already started the process of amending its solid waste plan, Marshall said. Appointment of a 14-member planning committee is the next step.

Contacts with people who may serve on the committee will be made after Labor Day, he said.